is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

The jury convicted Benson on the first vote, she said. Fragments of the pipe-bomb Steven Benson built to blow up his family's Chevy Suburban, killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister on July 9, 1985 in front of their Naples, Fla., home. Hollywood's Carol Lynn Benson Kendall (University of Richmond School of Law, admitted to the Florida Bar 2002) got disbarred, the final step after her suspension in February and a. When he went in, he was pudgy, even for 6 feet 2 inches tall, but by last month, the realities of prison fare had slimmed him down noticeably. On July 11, two days after Margaret and Scott Benson were killed, Wayne Kerr, the lawyer from Philadelphia, filed a 1983 will that named him executor of the estate. However, she continued to pamper him. Steven Benson and his wife, Debra, leave funeral services for his mother and brother, Margaret and Scott Benson, at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster in 1985. [13] . I couldnt get through to him spiritually., Im no psychologist, Sands adds, but he lives in denial. malevolent." Then you had Scott as an aspiring tennis player, but ordering nitrous oxide to be delivered to the house like some people get milk, he said, so he could carry on with his girlfriend, who was a stripper.. And what Benson was doing was spending the money, lots of it, for all kinds of things, including a house in Fort Myers and a car. Bensons aunt, Murphy, recalls him as being different as well. Carol Lynn Kendall, sister of Steven Benson, survived the car bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret Benson, on July 9, 1985. He had cautioned his new employes, according to testimony, not to let anyone in the offices of the Naples-based companies know the name of the company or what they did. Your email address will not be published. Margarets blood was still all over the side of his van. ", Once all was set, she testified, Steven handed Scott the keys, and then said he had forgotten something and headed back toward the house. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. I knew she was scared of Scott, but that was a different situation. ", When they got back to Naples, Margaret told Steven she wanted to meet with him and Kerr that evening and "talk business." The family and everybody just treated his grandmother as Scotts mother, the attorney said. Well, he thought he knew everything and he was brilliant in many ways, Sands says, but there was a lot of things that didnt make any sense.. . Despite claims by the defense that Scott was heavily involved in drug use and possibly even drug dealing (and that the bombing was therefore drug-related) there was little testimony that Scott was anything more than a regular user of nitrous oxide and an occasional user of marijuana and cocaine. He thought he was better than everybody else.. Those involved with the case say they are surprised at how it still resonates in peoples minds, and their own lives. Her daughter, Kendall, was. . Murphys daughter, Brenda, was there that day. It was then that she had her personal secretary run a tab of what her children owed her. Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. He turned to the television cameras and delivered a stern warning to the "youth of Southwest florida" about the dangers of laughing gas. His company prospered, and he became one of the best-liked civic and charitable figures in Lancaster, Pa., a lovely area surrounded by Amish farms. Collier Judge Hugh Hayes presided over the trial. On the morning of the blast, prosecutors said, Benson drove the vehicle shortly before the explosion, allegedly to get doughnuts at a nearby convenience store. Yesterday, a jury began deliberations on those charges after weeks of riveting testimony involving enormous amounts of money and a tangled family web. Scott was an aspiring tennis professional, but apparently the aspirations were Margaret's rather than his. District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District. Tragically, Hitchcock turned out to be right about his grandson. She said she will never forget that moment. Nobody else had time to put a bomb in there, Young said. Release Calendar Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. At the age of 63, Margaret Benson, was killed by her son, Steven Benson, with a car bomb that also took the life of her her grandson, Scott Benson, and injured her daughter, Carol Lynn Kendall, on July 9, 1985, in fron t of their Naples, Fla., home. He seldom looked at Steven.The defendant watched his grandfather enter the courtroom, but after that he never looked at him. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. She was afraid her brother would come after her and her children if he ever got free. I did most of the talking.. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. That she was once a beauty contest winner is easy to see. (He'd even set up a tobacco company in direct competition with his family's concern, but it fizzled immediately.). Prosecutors argued his mother's funds were used as seed money -- or to bail out one or more of the companies in emergencies, of which there were many. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall was a former Miss Florida runner-up and was survived in a murder attempt by her brother Steven Wayne Benson in 1985. But in reality she had been alone with her thoughts -- the memory of that "malevolent orange thing," and her recollection of the day she took the stand and referred, for the first time in public, and in front of all those strangers, to the late Scott Benson as "my son.". Not just Steven, but the whole family was just ugly. The Trustees set up a trust for Kendall, a trust for Stephen, and a share for Scott. 20 years later, friends and family still try to make sense of Benson murders: 'It still seems unreal', By opting into newsletters you are agreeing to our. And he is an arbitrator within the family when things go wrong., Steven started to cry. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. However, according to a veteran Florida criminal attorney, "any time in a murder case when a defendant without a prior record fails to take the stand, it looks bad. The three children were to divide the estate equally. They had so much, and the family dynamic was about as whacked out as you could ask for.. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? I can see what money can do when people get so tied up in self, he says. The judge did another unusual thing. ", As for the positioning of the vehicle's occupants, "I thought it was awfully strange that Scott was driving. Steven said he was sorry but that he already had a business meeting. Eventually the second will was ruled valid, but before that happened, Steve Benson was arrested. The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. When the police questioned him about the trip, he said he was delayed when he ran into some people he knew; but Steven was unable to provide the police with their names. Thats the way Steve was.. Here, prosecuting attorney Jerry Brock addresses members of the media outside the Florida courtroom where the case took place. Menu. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Obituary - Death, Cause Of Death, Funeral: Friends and others affected mourn the death of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, has suddenly passed away.click to read and leave tributes. When Benson refused to pay, Washington and another man, identified as Marvin Taylor, ambushed and shanked Benson. He went through money like crazy, Sands says. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 42, of Brookline, Mass. It also wanted to rehear some of what the government fingerprint expert had said about the palm prints. Something is wrong with Daddy. In addition, the Benson Family murder case was the subject of The Serpent's Tooth, a 1987 book by Christopher Andersen. Beyond that, Young had little to say. He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. Steven Wayne Benson[1] (July 26, 1951 July 3, 2015) was an American convicted double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson; and his brother (actually his nephew but later adopted), tennis player Scott Benson. Support local journalism. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. It wasn't the prison pallor that surprised people who had known him; it was the grim and almost affectless bearing. The next day, Wayne Kerr, at whose wedding Steven Benson had been the best man, took the stand. Reached Friday about her brothers death, she said, I really have no comment.. According to prosecution evidence, there was even talk that Steven might be cut out of his mother's will. All but 30 remain open investigations. McDonnell argued that palm print identification is not reliable. Bar Number: 555258. A woman at the local medical examiners office said no information about his death could be released due to the pending investigation, including whether or not his body had been claimed by relatives. She hardly looked at her brother, but when she testified about Scott Benson, she called him "my son. Carol Lynn testified that he arrived unusually early and insisted on taking the Chevy Suburban, rather than his own car, and first going by himself for coffee and doughnuts. To that end, he held court one day from 8:30 in the morning, his usual opening time, to 10 that night. Other testimony revealed another regular expenditure. It was her sister, Margaret, 63, and her nephew, Scott, 21, who had died in a horrific car explosion in Florida. And there was lots of squabbling over who got what. Benson calmly talking on the phone about his burglar alarm companys profits when investigators arrived at the home where the shattered bodies of his mother, Margaret, 63, and his brother, Scott, 21, still lay outside on the driveway. Lets go with disastrous hate. He will be eligible for parole when he is 85. He was sobbing.. I felt like I was being pressed back into the seat. Indeed, Margaret Benson did change her will, but in a terribly ironic touch, the only change was to cut out Wayne Kerr as executor. Benson, now 53, is serving two life sentences in a Florida prison for killing his mother and brother, and trying to kill his sister. ", The jowly and bespectacled witness testified that Steven's company books were a mess, with checkbook entries missing and no balance carried forward. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. Joyce Quinn, Margaret Benson's quiet and polite young secretary who'd lasted but three months in the job before realizing there had to be saner employment, testified that Margaret "paid for everything for Scott" -- his cars (among them two Lotuses, a sports car that costs $45,000 to $50,000) his van, his Cigarette speedboat, his apartment and furniture, repairs, his tennis lessons, his clothes and his gas credit cards. It wasnt discussed. I saw you on TV. Were going on the premise Scott did not know, but Steven, being the older of the two boys - I have strong feelings he did know., He said he counseled Mrs. Kendall to tell the truth about Scotts birth and answer any and all questions they ask, no matter how private or embarrassing.. Puncture wound of right temple made by a sharpened instrument ('shank')," the report states. Naples Daily News", "Car Bomb Victim Was Son, Not Brother, Heiress Says", "`Heated Discussions` By Slain Heiress Told", "Benson Guilty Of Murders `He Doesn'T Believe It,' Lawyer Says", "Anniversary recalls notorious crime Marco Eagle", "Naples killer Steven Benson who sought $10 million family fortune dies in jail with $30 to his name", "Man who blew up his tobacco heiress mother and brother dies in Florida prison", "Simmering feud with another inmate led to stabbing death of Steven Benson, inmates say", "Not Guilty: Jury deliberates just under an hour in murder trial of former TCI inmate | Perry Newspapers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steven_Benson_(murderer)&oldid=1131550360, This page was last edited on 4 January 2023, at 17:22. (AP Photo). . Murphy does not know whether the couple, who had three children, later divorced. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. . He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. Not at her mother's house in Naples, for that has been sold, but behind several closed doors in the state's attorney's offices. -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. Except for that last-minute surprise appearance, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall had spent the day out of sight, with her lawyer and the lawyer for her mother's estate. Steven Benson, right, enters Lee County Court with his defense attorney Mike McDonnell as the jury selection portion of his murder trial Monday, July 14, 1986. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC Benson was sentenced to life in prison. Just follow the money, and you could see what he was doing.. Murphys nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to escape the fiery blast that day. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? 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